The upcoming Pectra upgrade for Ethereum will transform how institutional staking operates, with key changes to validator consolidation and new prospects for automatic compounding— features that could reduce infrastructure costs by up to 90%, according to Artemiy Parshakov, vice president of institutions at P2P.org.
Decrypt spoke with Parshakov on Wednesday at Consensus 2025 in Hong Kong, tackling how the Pectra upgrade introduces these features and how they could boost the sector.
“For the staking ecosystem, this is a huge one,” Parshakov told Decrypt, adding that, “in comparison with Shanghai, it’s on par.” While Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade enabled withdrawals, Pectra brings “special features which will make staking smoother,” growing market share and adoption, Parshakov said.
The upgrade introduces validator consolidation from 32 ETH to 2,000 ETH per validator, revolutionizing how institutions manage staking infrastructure.
An operation running 1,000 validators could consolidate to just 16, dramatically reducing operational overhead, Parshakov explained, calling it a “huge, huge difference.”
Parshakov added that the firm will be able to offer, “lower fees for our clients,” as a result, “because they can consolidate validators and just provide.”
Pectra also introduces auto-compounding, a feature that reinvests staking rewards to boost earnings over time without manual intervention.
For institutional stakers managing “thousands, if not dozens of thousands of ETH,” the auto-compounding mechanism represents a bigger opportunity.
“You don’t need to care about, ‘How many ETH did I earn, what should I do with them?’” Parshakov said. “You can just compound, compound, compound—and earn more all the time.”
Another challenge the Ethereum ecosystem currently faces is usability. Parshakov highlighted how the Pectra upgrade introduces EIP-7702 and its “smart sponsor” capability.
The feature allows third parties to sponsor transaction fees, enabling a “free-to-use” model for Web3 applications, similar to how Web2 platforms offer services while monetizing through other means.
“What do institutions need?” Parshakov said. “They actually need a Web2-like financial experience because they’re mostly Web2, and it’s a step in this direction.”
